A good road trip always starts the night before.
For this one, a trailer would be necessary, because the loot we’re heading out to recover consists of two upright arcade cabinets… luckily, the small grey trailer will do the job just fine.
For one of the two cabinets, I’m guessing I’ll have to haul it across some grass, so I’m bringing a hand truck with me.
Wednesday, January 28th, 2026, around 5:30 in the morning (unless it was 6:30? ...because I never change the summer/winter time in my car… I honestly don’t remember
)
Every time I see the neighbor’s white wall, I imagine myself painting a huge mural on it
The first of the two cabinets, the one furthest away, is located beyond Paris…
I jot down a few numbers, just for my road‑tripper statistics
And there we go, we’re on the move… I love the smell of a road trip at dawn
But barely 50 km later, BAM, an error message pops up on the dashboard: trouble with my turn signals!
Grrrr… and I had cleaned the connector between the car and the trailer so carefully!
Damn it, this is going to be tricky for the people driving right behind me, especially in Paris...
I stopped again to check it, but nothing helps… I’m going to have to be extremely careful.
Alright, moving on… the first highway toll. There will be quite a few of them along the way… and yeah, all these road trips are starting to become a real budget
Luckily, there aren’t many people on the road. Leaving super early really helps, especially on a weekday. Trust my experience, my friends: avoid weekends!
Good thing for this first destination, I managed to avoid Paris a little… we’re almost there...
After a few hours on the road and more than 400 km later, I finally arrive at my destination.
As usual, I somehow end up at the strangest spots
This time, the first cabinet is tucked away in a lonely barn… and I have to get through that gate to reach it. I call my contact…
An old man comes to open the gate for me. He’s not the owner of the cabinet (a young guy who just left for his studies in the United States), nor his parents who couldn’t make it at the last minute, but their neighbour.
I follow the kind man -me in the car, him on foot- slowly, step by step.
I follow him for a full minute, which feels like an eternity given how slowly he walks
...
And here it is... the first of the two cabinets on this Parisian trip
It’s an Out Run upright, completely untouched, straight in its original state, but quite worn out by time… and surely by a few breakdowns as well
How on earth do I still not have such a classic in my collection?
Over the past 25 years, I must have had at least ten chances to buy an Out Run (old‑timer mode = ON
).
I love this game, yet somehow I never pulled the trigger
Well, here’s the photo that best illustrates its condition: straight‑up “barn find”
Even though it doesn’t appear in the photo, the full control panel is there too, and of course one of the gears is broken… a true classic issue on this cabinet
Remember, I did bring my hand truck with me but I can assure you it wasn’t of much use for moving the cabinet across that lawn. This cabinet weighs as much as a dead donkey!
Alright, enough talking - time to load the beast… but that was only the first part of today’s mission.
Because the next part takes place… at my in‑laws’ place, an hour’s drive away
You’re going to laugh, but the real reason, or rather the original reason, for this road trip isn’t the Sega Out Run. It’s actually this little local curiosity that’s been waiting for me for a few days now in the small storage room behind my in‑laws’ house
I actually stumbled upon an ad offering a Pac‑Man cabinet made by EURope Electronique (EUREL) but fully licensed by Namco.
As you’ll see later, the artwork is so kitschy, so over‑the‑top, so wonderfully local that I couldn’t resist.
I first contacted the seller to buy only the screen bezel, but after thinking it over, I realized I had to save this quirky cabinet at all costs.
And by sheer luck, the seller lives just ten minutes away from my in‑laws.
So I sent my brother‑in‑law on a mission to pick up the cabinet for me. The plan was for him to keep it safe for a few weeks, or even a few months, until my next visit to Paris.
Except that…
...after picking up the cabinet, my brother‑in‑law told me it would probably be too wide to bring into their storage room behind the house, because you have to go through this narrow little passageway
…and so he told me he was going to leave the cabinet
outside, in the courtyard -
OUTSIDE-with just a tarp to protect it from the weather! :'(
You can imagine how fast my blood pressure went up! No way I’m leaving that thing like that for weeks. So boom: emergency road trip!
And since I’m already going to Paris for Pac‑Man, I might as well check what’s for sale nearby. That’s how I found an Out Run less than an hour away.
May as well make the trip profitable, even if it meant taking my tiny trailer
And here she is, right before loading
There’s going to be a LOT of work on this one : new control panel, new side arts… the full makeover.
But just look at her! She’s adorable
Yes sir, this is French‑made… and that, my friends, is real retro heritage!
Alright, I won’t hang around. I’ve been on the road non‑stop since 6 a.m.
A family road trip is pretty cool though: before I left, they slipped a burger into the car… how cute is that, huh?
Nothing special here. Well, okay ,I am in Paris, but no time to visit today…
Alright, fine... one quick stop for the road, and for football fans (not me) and concert lovers (me!): the world famous Stade de France
Nothing special left to see. Let’s fast‑forward the journey… oh wait, yes there is the legendary Woinic
Woinic is a giant metal boar statue in northern France, a kind of roadside boss fight you stumble upon during long drives
The numbers : A 50‑ton steel sculpture, 14 meters long, 8.5 meters tall... built as a tribute to the Ardennes region, where the wild boar is the emblem
And here we are... the Belgian border.
It’s official: two beautiful arcade cabinets rescued from the French retro heritage and now safely crossing into Belgium
I’ll spare you the rest of the drive. Here I am, finally back at base
For my 'pro‑level' roadtripper stats
Trip : Belgium -> France -> Belgium
Total length : 10h57 min - 837 km on road
By the time I’m publishing this road trip, the Pac‑Man is already fully restored and it’s a hit at every expo I bring it to. I’ll soon do a deep dive on this little curiosity, it definitely deserves it.
As for the Out Run, I haven’t touched it at all yet. It’s patiently waiting for its turn.
So stay tuned for more...
